Senior Mat Bruzzese came in first last night in the annual Poetry Out Loud contest held at Rockland High School. His first place award enables him to move on to the Poetry Out Loud regional competition in Yarmouth in March.
Bruzzese was one of four contestants in the poetry recitation event. Sophomore Kathleen Nee came in second while freshmen Anabelle MacDonald and Emilly Costa shared the third place prize.
English Department head, Carol Cahill hosted the event in the lecture hall and congratulated all the students for their poetry recitations. Each student recited two poems, one in each round of competition.
Students choose their poems from a library provided by the National Poetry Out Loud organization. A list of the students’ poems is below.
The four judges of the contestants included Karen Bonn, Bill Boyer, and Danny Bolton.The judges evaluated each student’s performance on physical presence, voice and articulation, dramatic appropriateness, evidence of understanding and overall performance. Accuracy scorer was RHS English teacher, Kendra Donovan.
Congratulations to Mat and to all the contestants.
Poems
Kathleen Nee – “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and “Abandoned Farmhouse” by Ted Kooser
Annabelle MacDonald – “Broken Promises” by David Kirby and “I Remember, I Remember” by Thomas Hood
Emilly Costa – “I Am Offering this Poem” by Jimmy Santiago Baca and “I heard a fly buzz when I died” by Emily Dickinson
Mat Bruzzese – “The Days Gone By” by James Whitcomb Riley and “Sweet Tooth” by Russel Edson